What happens when technology can do great things for humanity, but doesn't make a lot of money? Jim Fruchterman explores the social entrepreneurship side of technology applications: how to get great tech tools to the people who often need them the most, but are least able to afford them!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

A Bookshare Valentine’s Day Love Story

This true story was written by two Bookshare volunteers, Evan Reese and Lissi Deren.

She was a proofreader in Ohio who saw a new Welsh name, Evan Reese,
on the Bookshare volunteer list. His messages were articulate,
optimistic, technically sound, sometimes funny, and always courteous. He
was a scanner who saw happy messages from Lissi, noticed she loved
animals, and better yet, she was a fan of The Lord of the Rings, proofreading a book, One Ring to Bind Them All.
On May 20, 2006, he emailed her off list asking her to hurry because he
wanted to read it. Ten days later the book was added to the collection
and they’d agreed to tackle Tolkien’s 12 volume history of Middle Earth
together.

It was all work between them, figuring out how to prepare accented
elvish and format footnotes until the day he wrote, “Not to get too
personal, but I really like ketchup,” and she impulsively bought a half
gallon bottle of Ketchup at Super K-Mart. A week after one of his best
friends died, feeling lonely, and bolstered by how well they worked
together and their mutual interest in Bookshare and Tolkien, he
impulsively called her. They talked and talked. They exchanged more and
longer phone calls and emails. One night they listened to the Fellowship of the Ring movie on the phone until 4 in the morning.

By October, he declared he loved her. She was ecstatic but fearful he
was too good to be true. He began a campaign, sending love letters,
love songs, and reassurance. She said that he had the persistence of a
used car salesman, but he finally won her shy permission to fly to Ohio
to meet. They became a couple but were so discreet that it was over a
year later before a canny volunteer noticed some of Evan’s messages were
sent from Lissi’s email address and speculated a Bookshare romance was
in progress.

He moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to her. By then they were
collaborating on projects to add more books appealing to young boys,
holiday books, books about Ireland, Scotland and Wales, mysteries, and
science fiction. They worked on projects with many other Bookshare
volunteers at the same time.

They live together in Ohio now with two cute, affectionate, house
dogs. They download regularly from Bookshare’s exploding collection to
their various braille and listening devices. Though they’ve contributed
over 1,250 books to the collection, his scans exceed the standard for
accuracy; she proofreads every word, and they both double check
everything. Jim Fruchterman is their hero, and they treasure their
friends among Bookshare’s staff and volunteers.

Without having to do an advanced search in the romance section to
read it, you have our story, one that wouldn’t have begun if Bookshare
hadn’t welcomed our volunteer contribution and given us an email list, a
means of pooling talent and helping one another. We have many reasons
to be grateful to Bookshare, most important of which is that it brought
us together. As Bookshare continues to evolve, serving up more books in
more diverse ways, our romance grows too, no doubt to reach new heights
on Valentine’s Day.

Wishing happy reading and full hearts to our Booksharian friends,
Evan and Lissi